The Sunday News
Rutendo Nyeve and Raymond Jaravaza
Sunday News Reporters
A WRANGLE between two Bulawayo schools has caught the attention of authorities amid accusations that one of the educational institutions is not properly registered and is allegedly coaxing pupils from its rival.
The two schools at the centre of the row are Honours Academy and Lisani School of Excellence in Entumbane suburb.
Honours College has been renting out a property owned by a Bulawayo businessman next to the Entumbane Shopping Complex where they had set up their school for 10 years.
The college was established in 2014 and has Form One to Form Six classes and recently moved to another location after a fallout with the property owners over a rent dispute.
The owners allegedly hiked rentals forcing the institution to seek alternative premises.
“We had a dispute with the building owner because of rentals. We felt the rentals he was proposing were no longer making business sense to us. He was proposing close to US$10 000, so we moved to Njube where our school is now operating from.
“A week later, we learnt that another school had moved into our former premises, something that we don’t have a problem with, but now the new guys are luring our pupils to join their school. We now think the rental increase was meant to push us out of the building so that the new school can move in and get our pupils to join them. So far, we have lost more than half of our pupils to the new school. What hurt us the most is that our former pupils are joining an unregistered institution and it’s our name that will be soiled because those pupils are going to the new school wearing Honours Academy uniforms,” said an Honours Academy official who preferred to remain anonymous.
Sunday News visited Lisani School of Excellence to verify allegations by the Honours Academy official that they were not registered with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.
The news crew observed that some pupils were wearing black and white uniforms with an Honours Academy logo on the girls’ blouses and boys’ shirts.
Some of the pupils were, however, wearing casual clothes and one young girl told Sunday News that her mother was told by the school authorities that the uniform will be ready in two weeks.
Lisani School of Excellence principal Mr Tapson Mathe inadvertently told this publication that the school was yet to register with the parent ministry.
“I’m actually rushing to the ministry offices in town and if you guys had got here a minute later; you would have missed me.
“Registration (with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education) is a long and tedious process so yes we are not yet registered but that is what I’m going to start sorting out as of today,” said Mr Mathe.
Asked to respond to allegations that his school was coaxing pupils from Honours Academy, Mr Mathe said: “We don’t know of any pupils who left the former school to join us, and even if they did, I believe it’s their choice to do so and not that we coerced them. Schools uniform will be made available for all our pupils very soon and I don’t think it correct to say our pupils are wearing a school uniform from another school”.
In an interview with Sunday News Bulawayo Provincial Education Director Mr Benard Mazambani said his office had received reports that Honours Academy had moved premises but he was not aware that a new school was operating from Entumbane.
“As a ministry we do not interfere in rental disputes between private institutions and their landlords.
“Our duty is not to govern private colleges per se but we make sure that their facilities such as classrooms, ablution facilities etc. are up to standard and that these private colleges are properly registered and meet the criteria set by the ministry to operate as educational institutions.
“We are not aware of the new school that has taken over the premises so I cannot comment about them because technically we do not know who they are,” said Mr Mazambani.
